IP Addresses and Networks

After last night do IP Addresses mean anything more to you than before? We knew that they were your identity on the internet, but what else do they say about you? Understanding now the vast number of network components that make up a corporate network how do you think you will be a better IT Auditor after what we covered last night?

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I had a better understanding of public IP address, private IP address, and default gateway. The activity reminds me of what I learned from IT auditing process class: it is better to set firewalls for different departments instead of one single firewall for the whole company, and Week 5’s activity is probably the tech knowledge base.

I learned that hackers are using command prompt to hack people’s computers, which is nice to know. IP Addresses tell the identity of the host and the location of the host. It also amazes me how a WindowsXP looking software called PuTTy has so many things to do with IP setup and hacking. Understanding all the network components help us to be better IT Auditors because it gets us to the mindset of a hacker, thus making it easier for us to defend hackers.

After study, I know the difference between Local area networks and Wide area networks. LAN Routing is each central node maintains and uses routing table to make routing decisions. WAN Routing is to packet routing uses a store and forward approach. At the meantime, this lecture teach me how to figure out network hardware, which include NIU, Hub, Bridge, Router and Switch. In addition, the lecture shows how to create our own network, such as network hardware introduction and how to set up the system. Before the course, I even do not know there is different IP between different floor level.

IP addresses give us the ability to be part of a network and gain access to the Internet. When a user connects to a website, that website can view the IP address of the user due to the computer tags in the command to visit that site. Through the IP address, generally linked to a router, we are able to find the general location of the user (area or town, not necessarily an address) and also find out how frequently a person connected to that specific router visits a given website. The connection of an address to specific websites, including photo sharing or content specific sites, could reveal our personal identities and browsing preferences. This is important to remember for network administrators and IT Auditors because we can see what IP addresses have recently visited the network, and determine if any of those IP addresses are suspicious and may be conducting malicious activity. Understanding IP addresses and how they function in a company’s network allows for more efficient IT auditing by allowing more effective testing, inspection, and explanations to corporate management as to why any addresses may be notable.

I was always curious how the network of a big area works and the involved knowledge. After the class from last week, I realized that no matter how many end users within a big organization, they may use the same network as well, and they can work together just because there is a big “magic box” there to link them together. After learning the wired connection, I’d like to learn how the public WIFI work such as the large-scale campus. The internet can not only expose our identities, other people can also analyze our weakness from our online activities. I think after the last class, I acknowledge how the internal network links together, which can help my future career.

Having a better understanding of IP addresses gets us closer to how to visualize a network within an organization. As an auditor knowing what traffic to expect based on IP addresses can help us to identify misconfigured network elements or malicious activity. It was also interesting learning how IP addresses can be set manually and it helps in learning how the process works when you have 30 or 300 routers vs 3.